LOOKS LIKE A 12-GAUGE, HITS LIKE A BEAN BAG

A couple years back, Tommy Teach found himself sharing the road with a very agitated driver. As the situation escalated, it became clear the enraged individual was not about to simply move on down the road—so Teach took action. He promptly called area police and identified himself.

“The guy was on meth; he was a tweaker,” recalls Teach. “I pulled over in an effort to diffuse the situation, but the guy pulled over behind me and I could not get back out into traffic.”

Police could not get to the scene quickly enough as the other individual exited his car and approached Teach, so the military combat veteran reached for his concealed weapon. ￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼

TESTING SOCK ROUND AGAINST BARREL OF WATER USING BRUZER LESS LETHAL LAUNCHER

DEFENSE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL, INC.

“Willingness is a state of mind.READINESS is a statement of fact!”

Last weekend, while conducting a Defensive Shotgun Course, the Class and I were treated to a live demonstration of the BRUZER.

The BRUZER is a small and relatively inexpensive, less-lethal, 12ga launcher. Basically, it is double-barreled (over/under) 12ga shotgun, in pistol form, with pistol sights. Barrels are only three inches (including chamber), and the unit breaks open like a Derringer. It is designed to launch less-lethal, 12ga munitions. One must manually cock the hammer for each discharge. One could technically fire lethal, 12 ga rounds through it (buckshot and slugs), but the resulting recoil would be intolera-ble. I surely didn’t volunteer to test that theory!

We had several dozen 12ga “beanbag” rounds available for testing, so everyone in our Class had the opportunity to shoot it. Beanbags go downrange at just under 300 f/s, so both shooter and observers can see it in flight. The same beanbags, when launched from a full-length shotgun, go fifty f/s faster.

BRUZER recoil with beanbags is mild, and good accuracy against a human torso is achievable out to 25m. We shot them at steel silhouettes, and they made a good, audible “thump’ upon impact.

When launched at high angle, maximum range appears to be 150m, but practical, effective range is limited to 50m. Minimum range is five meters. Closer than that, and you’ll start to get penetra-tion. Between five and fifty meters, the beanbag itself (a sock filled with 71/2 shot) is effective, but bounces off without penetration. A large bruise is guaranteed, and a cracked rib is possible. Best targets are legs, buttocks, and abdomen.

The BRUZER is being marketed as a low-cost alternative to 37mm launchers, Tasers, and sting-ball launchers. The BRUZER is relatively inexpensive and compact. 12ga less-lethal ammunition is also relatively inexpensive.

With world-wide civil unrest looming as the big law-enforcement issue in 2012 and beyond, I suspect the BRUZER will be getting as lot of attention! The copy we used ran as advertised, and every-one was able to hit with it.

Concealed carry laws are in a constant state of metamorphosis in this country. One day they’re in, the next they’re out. Some states also limit or prevent civilian use of electronic controlled devices.

“As of February 2011 in D.C., Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, (parts of) the U.S. Virgin Islands and Indiana civilians are not allowed to have [an ECD] for self-defense,” says Teach. Enter the BRUZER launcher for law enforcement, military and civilian use. “Because you can’t always get to a shotgun,” says Teach. After dealing with various local police departments, Teach and his team noticed a void between common ECDs and 12-gauge shotguns marked “less lethal.” The consensus was the 12-gauge isn’t always as portable as it could be.

To augment local police officers’ growing array of non-lethal weapons, Tommy Teach, a military combat veteran, has designed a compact non-lethal 12-gauge shotgun.

With the help of his business partner, David Sult, Teach developed the BRUZER, a compact 12-gauge less-lethal launcher that can fire a variety of off the shelf less-lethal ammunition including bean bags, flash bangs, flares, chemical delivery, and rubber bullets.

Teach found that 12-gauge shotguns are not particularly portable making them unrealistic in many situations. Resembling its more lethal cousin, but roughly the size of a pistol, the BRUZER is far more portable. The device is compact enough to be drawn from leg holsters, vest-mounts, and cross-draw holsters.

In designing the less-lethal 12-gauge launcher, Teach was mindful to create as similar device as possible to the original.

“We have a lot of civil unrest. When a person faces the BRUZER head-on—and we don’t actually recommend that you do this—they will see two very large diameter barrels staring back at them. It’s a big deterrent,” Teach explained. “People are going to look at this and [say] wait a minute, this doesn’t look good. And chances are … they are going to stop whatever they’re doing.”